__I__f I were asked to write about this product as a flight simulator, I wouldn't touch it with a 110-key keyboard. Yeah, the geeks who created this program thought they were writing a flight simulator, but forget the airplanes and get ready for something real.
Using the wizardry of high-res satellite imaging, it is the background of Flight Unlimited II that is the real story. It's a combined road map, real estate searcher, and detailed view of the San Francisco Bay area (with other areas to come). Hit Control-Z and leave the plane behind. You can move yourself at Warp 9 to fly over the Golden Gate Bridge or to find out what's behind the Stanford Linear Accelerator. This is no flat map; this is a genuine 3-D model. The way it looks is the way the land is.
I introduced my off-the-beaten-track-house-hunting friend Lyn to my with-it real estate broker Jerry. We investigated the hilltops south of San Francisco, where you can see both the ocean and the bay, and little-known valleys near Livermore. Want to see how the view looks from a potential home site? Fly there and look around.
This might be the best way to tour the topography of the Bay area ever invented. I learned about places I didn't know existed. OK, I did fly the Mustang through the hangars at Moffet Field, but then I'm an airplane nut.
It's not perfect; some places have more detail than others. Berkeley is a bit fuzzy. But what did you expect? If you get bored, use it as a flight sim. You can't lose.
STREET CRED
Speech Recognition - To Go Dutch Hitmeister
When the Background Eclipses the Game
